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The Graham Technique, in ballet, developed from the work and teaching of Martha Graham (1893 - 1991), and is the starting point for most modern dance. In essence, it is an amalgam of the fluidity and free-form grace of ancient Greek dance (as interpreted by Isadora Duncan) and the disciplines of classical ballet technique. Graham\'s work also affected the story-lines of ballet. She brought in folk themes (and the folk styles of dance which went with them), non-Western dance styles and a new awareness of the gymnastic aspect of dance. If ballet has lost much of its 19th-century whimsy, and become intellectually more rigorous and stylistically more eclectic, that is a development which began with Graham. KMcL |
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